Platinum nanoparticle interlayer promoted improvement in photovoltaic performance of silicon/PEDOT:PSS hybrid solar cells

Abstract Inorganic–organic hybrid solar cells have attracted considerable interest in recent years for their low production cost, good mechanical flexibility and ease of processing of polymer films over a large area. Particularly, silicon/conducting polymer hybrid solar cells are extensively investigated and widely believed to be a low-cost alternative to the crystalline silicon solar cells. However, the power conversion efficiency of silicon/conducting polymer solar cells remains low in case hydrogen-terminated silicon is used. In this paper, we report that by introducing a platinum nanoparticle interlayer between the hydrogen-terminated silicon and the conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxy thiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate), namely PEDOT:PSS, the power conversion efficiency of the resulting Si/PEDOT:PSS hybrid solar cells can be improved by a factor of 2–3. The possible mechanism responsible for the improvement has been investigated using different techniques including impedance spectroscopy, Mott–Schottky analysis and intensity modulated photocurrent/photovoltage spectroscopy (IMPS/IMVS). The results show that with a platinum nanoparticle interlayer, both the series resistance and charge transport/transfer resistance of the Si/PEDOT:PSS hybrid solar cells are reduced leading to an increased short circuit current density, and the built-in voltage at the space charge region is raised facilitating electron-hole separation. Moreover, the lifetime of charge carriers in the Si/PEDOT:PSS solar cells is extended, namely, the recombination is effectively suppressed which also contributes to the improvement of photovoltaic performance.